Page 15 of Pack Rage
He wrapped an arm around me, his body warm on mine in the cool night air. “What about dancing on?”
I peered up at him. “What does that mean?”
Glen shrugged. “Think of this place as a graveyard. Heck, most of the pack that was here is dead now. Not all the ones who hurt you have graves you can dance on. But you can dance on the memories of pain, and show the remnants of this broken pack how to move on.” He held out his hand. “And show the rest of them that they don’t matter enough to keep you from living. Dance with me.”
The song changed to a slow song at that very moment, and I slid into his arms. The moon had risen high enough to fly over the pines, and the area practically glowed. When that song ended, Sergeant grabbed me for some sort of polka, whirling me around. Then Bo and Leroy begged me to join them for aline dance so easy, even I could do it without practicing. Most of the Southern shifters were still hanging back, dozens of eyes gleaming in the shadows, but all the girls and rogues joined in, and Iris made her way to my side.
“Thank you,” she said, as we moved side by side.
“For what?” I flapped my hands, then my arms, then wiggled along with everyone else. Laughter rang across the improvised dance floor, all of us looking ridiculous. Even Sergeant had joined in, and the Tenebris pack shifters were mobbing him.
She nodded to the Southerners watching, though some of them might have wanted to dance, from the way their hands and feet were twitching. “For showing those assholes whose side you’re on.”
I had no idea what she meant. I wrinkled my nose and clapped four times, then turned to the right. “Whose side?”
“The side of the dancing chickens.” She squatted, flapping her arms like a chicken and wiggling her butt, then waved a wing at the Southerners. “Or the constipated chickenshits.”
Chapter 7
Look Away
FLOR
“The chickens or the chickenshits, Flor?” Iris repeated her question, and for some reason, it tickled my funny bone harder than anything had in a while.
I let out a hoot of laughter, but lost my step, which caused Iris to trip me. Our legs tangled, and I fell down on my butt in the dirt, coughing on the cloud of dust that rose up. For a split second, I was thrown into a memory. I was a child, being beaten in this very spot, screaming. Luke was there, too, though, throwing himself over me.
Protecting me.
A chorus of growls pulled me from the flashback, and I gazed around in amazement.
Seeing me down, some of the Southerners had moved out of the shadows toward me. I wasn’t sure if they meant to help me up, or take advantage of my fall. But the Tenebris boys were there instantly, their backs to me, guarding me in a circle, snarling at the perceived threat.
My heart burned with gratitude and pride. These boys were starved, still exhausted from months or years of living wild, andfrom the past few days of battle and rebuilding. They were still willing to face down the more well-trained Southern shifters, for me.
There was no way I would take these boys to Eastern and get them killed.
Iris helped me up, and I thanked her and the boys for having my back. Glen began to follow me into the kitchen, but I waved him off. “Grab a drink for me? I’ll be right out.”
The toilet off the kitchen was full, so I wandered down a hallway and slipped into one I’d never been allowed to use before, since it was inside the Alpha’s private wing. As I came out, I heard something—a floorboard creaking, an indrawn breath?—and went still. No one would have business in this wing, not at this time of the evening. I padded silently down the hall, listening, my steak knife in one hand.
Halfway down the corridor, a strange sensation, like ants swarming over my skin, started up at my feet, and I went still. Cautiously, I took another step, and the feeling intensified. It was deeply unpleasant, my gut churning and my head fuzzy as I kept on, forcing my feet toward the open door at the end of the hall.
I did not want to go down there. The only thing that kept me moving was the knowledge that someone was already inside the room, someone who shouldn’t be. I gritted my teeth and continued, one hand on the wall as dizziness hit me in a wave… then vanished as my fingers touched the doorframe. The feeling of dread vanished as quickly as it had appeared.
I inhaled, and a familiar, unpleasant smell wafted around my face. I knew whose room this was. The Alpha’s.
I peered inside. The moonlight that sifted through the drapes on the wall opposite the door was all that lit the otherwise dark room.
A soft sigh in the darkness had me holding my breath to hear. “He never loved me, you know. Not for an hour. Not for a moment. His wolf, yes. His wolf recognized mine. Wanted her. But Calvin never once looked at me with love.”
“Mama?” I stepped closer. She was sitting on the edge of the bed, a pillow in her hands. She lifted it to her nose, and sniffed. The moonlight showed a flicker of something. Disgust? Longing? It was too dim to tell.
She put down the pillow.“You walked right through my spell.” She hummed in approval. “Good girl. Strong.”
“You… you did a look-away spell in the hall,” I said, putting it together. “Just now?”
“My mama taught me that when I was little. Our pack was already in disarray, males going rogue. We had to use every weapon we could. I never had a lot of magic. But I could do the easy things better than anyone else in my pack. Except Mama.”
